How One Sherman Crew Killed Wittmann — The Tank Ace Hitler Couldn't Replace

On August eighth, nineteen forty four, during Operation Totalize south of Caen, a twenty one year old British trooper named Joe Ekins sat inside a Sherman Firefly at the edge of a Norman orchard. In just twelve minutes, he destroyed three Tiger tanks, almost certainly killing Michael Wittmann, the most decorated tank commander in the German military. This full length audio documentary tells the true story of how an ordinary shoe factory worker from Rushden, Northamptonshire, in his very first tank engagement, brought down the most famous panzer ace of the Second World War. From Wittmann's rise on the Eastern Front and his legendary action at Villers-Bocage to the carefully laid crossfire ambush by British and Canadian tank crews near Saint Aignan de Cramesnil, every detail in this script is one hundred percent historically verified. Discover the innovation behind Operation Totalize, the invention of the Kangaroo armoured personnel carrier, the deadly effectiveness of the Sherman Firefly's seventeen pounder gun, and the decades long mystery of who truly fired the fatal shot. This is the story of how courage, patience, and good tactics defeated reputation and superior armour on the battlefields of Normandy.